Intelligence and eyesight

[GoodLookinBalls]

I was curious on how intelligent ball pythons actually are? Do they have the ability to remember a persons scent or a person for that matter? Also how good is their eyesight? Whenever I go anywhere near the RUB he sees me and becomes much more alert. Do they have the mind capacity to enjoy being stroked etc? I'd also be interested in knowing how/if they deal with loud noises such as loud music in the same room. Any info would be great. Thank you.

[Slim]

The following are my personal observations after almost a decade of keeping ball pythons. My comments are in no way intended to be scientific.

When you consider that a BP's brain is about the size of a green pea, it shouldn't be suprising that they don't do much higher cognitive thinking. It's pretty obvious to me that they're almost purely instinctual in nature. Having said that I do believe they recognize their keepers, both by smell, which I believe to be highly developed, and by sight to a lesser degree.

I've also come to believe that BP's live in the moment, and in modes such as sleeping mode, hunting mode, eating mode, breeding mode, stress mode, being handled mode, etc. As keepers I belive it's important to recognize these modes and understand the behavior that goes with each one.

It's also obvious to me that while not classically intelligent, every BP has a distinct personality. I think it's human nature to belive that the ones who are more adventurous and outgoing are the most intelligent.

[JodanOrNoDan]

I do not know about recognizing individual people, but most learn that humans will not eat them. I believe that most of the activity when I enter the snake room surrounds them thinking they are going to get fed. I have one girl and only one that appears to initiate contact with people. When she comes to the front of the tub she wants out. When I open the tub she will climb up my arm and to my neck.

As to how well they see, from observation they see pretty well with the exception of normal albinos. All my normal albinos seem to be slightly vision challenged. I have a lavender albino also but I have not been able to establish whether he see's well or not since he is a spider and they have other issues that can make determining how well they see difficult.

I would imagine that music loud enough to create vibrations in the tubs, especially heavy bass, could become fairly annoying to a snake due to the way they "hear" (vibrations through the jawbone).

[chrid16371]

I think they can remember people. When we get out Kratos lay him on bed he always goes right for my girlfriend, now this could be bc her body temp is higher then mine but he will lay with her for 5-10 minutes then come explore around/on me for a bit then go rest under the blanket up against her legs. Doesn't matter where in bed we are he seems to be more drawn to her but it could be for a completely different reason then just liking her better. He greets me and only me every day when I wake up and look in and every time I come home no matter the time. Then there's Persephone who is always around me when we have her out and if she sees me walking by she will come half way out of her hide. I'm the one who feeds her so she is probably hoping for a meal every time she sees me. No matter the reasons behind it and whether or not it has to do with liking one of us more in my opinion it's still intelligent thinking.

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[Aercadia]

We have one snake in particular, a little shy thing, that I swear "likes" my husband more... whenever the tub is pulled out, he immediately goes into a ball, but if my husband takes him out, he'll uncurl and start flicking his tongue, loosening up, and generally being a little less anxious. If I hold him... forget it, he's not having it. Ball it is. Whether it has more to do with scent, or the fact that my husband produces body heat and has warm hands (whereas I'm pretty sure I'm a reptile myself), it's hard to say.

[Coluber42]

Their brains aren't like ours, but they're still brains - i.e, not computers and not something we actually understand very well at all. But I suspect that even very small brains can be much more sophisticated than we think.

We'll never know what it's really like to inhabit a BP's brain, but I think describing it as a world of instincts and basic visceral emotion (such as fear/anxiety, excitement, comfort, desire for particular conditions or mates or food) existing in the present moment is probably apt. That said though, whether or not they recall specific events in the past, they certainly can form associations and learn responses.

I also often wonder how much of their body motions are intentionally driven, and how much is essentially automatic. It appears that most of their intentional movements take place in the front third to half of the body, and the rest most of the time follows what the front did. Their caterpillar-type locomotion and also the lateral undulation type movement travels from the front of the body to the back. The rear third will tend to hold onto things if prodded or if the snake is starting to slip, but it's hard to tell whether that's really a reflex action or something the snake "decides" to do.

Brains are murky and complicated, even small reptile ones. We think ours are rational, but that is largely an illusion created by our complicated, murky brains.

[Snoopyslim]

I think scent plays a large role in there intelligence. Last night I took Val over to my dads and she was flicking and exploring like crazy, periscoping and flicking non-stop. Eventually she settled down but she was definitely taking in her new surroundings.

p.s. so funny my dad has been terrified of snakes his whole life but is interested in her and likes visits...when I went to walk home (he lives in a cabin beside us) I started to tuck her in my robe and my dad was freaking haha he was like "don't do that, she's going to bite you!!!" His fear is still there.

[vmachina]

I'm not sure if I was just imagining it, but I have a feeling they can "hear" a little more than just bass. There was a mosquito buzzing around my bp's tub when I was changing the water and I saw him looking around around for the buzzing (then again he could have also seen it flying around), but when I clapped both my hands together on the mosquito in the air he definitely jerked his head up in a surprised motion lol.

[redshepherd]

I believe a ball python can store memories and recognize different people, or at least different scents on different people.

Just an example is back when I had a black pastel female and before she was sold to me, the breeder brought her to a reptile show a couple months prior. Ever since she got back from the show, she hissed at the breeder whenever he opened her tub and otherwise acted angry at him... basically became temperamental due to the fact that he brought her to the show, for whatever reason.

He told me this about her, that she hisses, and shipped her to me. When she got to me, she did not hiss once at all for the entire time I had her! I had her for about 4 months. (Now she's sold to smoothscales on this forum) So I think we can safely assume that she recognizes different keepers, and who the person was that brought her to the stressful situation/reptile show.

On top of that, just from the fact that "more handling calms them down" (for most snakes), we can assume that they can at least store memories and feelings and remember what is safe or not.

I don't think they enjoy being stroked though... Feeling the need for physical affection is what leads to enjoy being stroked, and that seems to be mostly a mammal thing. But I believe they can learn that you're warm and that your handling won't hurt them, so they are content to stay put.

Regarding brain size = intelligence though, that's definitely not a factor... Just think, hummingbirds are so tiny, lighter than a penny, but incredibly incredibly intelligent. Same goes for small parrot species, like parrotlets. Their brains are around the size of a ball python's, but they are extremely emotional and intelligent animals that understand very human things like thankfulness, owing you something in return for what you've done for them, affection obviously, learning language, etc.

[LittleTreeGuy]

I'm always anxious to hear peoples thoughts on this question...I can't disagree with anyone, because, well, I'm not a snake so I don't know. LOL.

I think they can definitely remember scents though. I mean think about some of the bites/hits you hear about... I was handling mice and then reached into my bp's cage and it struck me. That BP didn't see a mouse, but it sure associated that scent with something to eat. This leads me unto two other thoughts....

1. I was told at my first expo by a breeder that he believed it was good practice to always use hand sanitizer before handling your snake. The reason being is two-fold. Obviously, you don't pass germs to the snake, and that over time, the snake will associate that scent with "no harm". He said he hadn't been bit since he started doing this. maybe he was blowing smoke up my butt, I don't know, but I do it, and so far, so good.

2. If in fact you put your hand into a BP cage and it's smelling like a mouse, and you get bit, this tells me the BP's brain has limited functionality. We as humans would think, hey, that football smells like a meatball, but I can clearly see it is not food. So We wouldn't bite it. The snake seems to only react on scent, and then it's right into "eating mode" like Slim mentioned earlier in the thread. Limited thinking has taken place here... Now... let's think back to what believe to be true of the cave-man and Neanderthals... or at least what we're told or taught about them... very animalistic and not great thinkers.... right? Just like a snake.... maybe.

I'm not saying snakes are going to be designing Jetson's briefcase-cars in a thousand years, but maybe they CAN learn some things.